Kimchighetti: Recipe from a Seoul train ride.

If you spend a ridiculous amount of time commuting on the subway every day, it makes total sense for advertisers to go all out with special ads to entertain the eye and inform people about their products. In the US, however, subway ads are not up to par with those in Asia, particularly Japan and Korea. Nowhere near!

Brands in either of those countries will teach you about the latest styles and how to achieve the look of your favorite celebrity. They will tell you about healthy remedies to regain your energy or home appliances that make your life easier. And then, you have all the food brands giving you quick tips and recipes that make your mouth water. These aren’t just nice colorful posters, but beautiful ads on flat-screen TVs.

Being a natural sucker for all-things advertising, I memorized one of those recipes. On a busy Friday in Seoul, a tomato sauce brand that I can’t pronounce showed how to make a quick pasta dish with ingredients that are a commonly found in any South Korean fridge. They called it something like Korean Spaghetti, but Nabol and I agree that the right thing to call this dish is Kimchighetti. The addition of Kimchi and Gochujang into the sauce makes it very thick and addictively kimchilicious. Once you try it, you’ll get it.

Kimchighetti – Ingredients:

½ Onion, sliced

1 Teaspoon gochujang

3 Large garlic cloves

Olive oil

4 Thick slices of country bacon

1 Cup of kimchi

1/2 Cup Kimchi juice

1 ½ Teaspoons of sugar

1/2 Tablespoon of salt

6 Large mushrooms, sliced

2/3 Cup tomato pure

½ Cup of cream cheese

½ Cup of sliced jam

½ Cup of green onions, sliced

1/2 Box of spaghetti

Pecorino Romano cheese

1. Fry your bacon with a few drops of olive oil until crispy. Let it cool and chop into small pieces. Remove some of the fat from the pan.

2. Use the remaining fat to sauté the onions and garlic until translucent. Add the mushrooms, kimchi, sliced ham, tomato pure, gochujang, salt, and sugar. Let it cook for a couple of minutes.

3. Add ½ a cup of water and the cream cheese. Let it reduce. While the sauce thickens, boil and drain your pasta.